A Boat, The Sea and A Man

The young man felt himself drifting on an endless sea. The sky was overcast with dull, oppressingly heavy dark gray clouds. He was drifting in that nether world between deep sleep and conscious awareness, the state in which he often received fleeting, piercing insights into life. But now, he was just drifting.

Once in a while, he fancied he would spy solid ground out there in that vast sea. He would maneuver his frail craft towards it. But as he drew close and was making ready to take tentative first steps on that sandy beach, he would be drawn by the mermaid's siren call back into the water... to the drifting... to the endless, pointless drifting.

This day, in the hours just before the dawn, he was once more adrift on that aimless, misty sea in search of something unseen and for the moment unknown to him. His small craft drifted toward the voices coming from somewhere just beyond the mist. He heard only indistinct whispers that drew him to move blindly in that direction, not knowing what to expect when he got there and not even knowing if he would ever get to that unseen place.

As he was carried along by some unseen current, he began to fear something that he could not clearly formulate. He scanned all about and began to fear that the spirit voices would eventually drown him... the voices that belied any reality... the voices that called him, implored him to come to them... to come on his final, fatal quest... to his watery grave.

The dawn was breaking. He spied a break in the solid stretch of unbroken gray mist and he finally drew a sigh of relief. Now the sunlight was streaming in through the window and intruded upon his half-conscious thoughts. He turned away from the light and tried to return once more to that sea and his very fragile boat. But the alarm rang very loudly and jarred him into an unwilling consciousness. The young man stirred and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He looked around his sparely furnished room. He got out of bed, walked to bathroom and turned on the cold water faucet. He splashed the cold water on his face and completed the process of waking up.

He stared in the mirror at himself and realized that he was still drifting.

Originally conceived April 22,1969